With City of Villains, Estelle Laure is reimagining a darker origin for beloved Disney villains. We recently got to ask her about the inspiration for City of Villains (which released on January 26th 2021), her writing process, and what it was like working within the Disney canon.
Hi Estelle! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing career so far?
I feel incredibly blessed. I think every writing career has its roller coaster aspects to it and mine is no exception. My first book, This Raging Light, was published in 2015 and translated into twelve languages, so I got off to a good start. It was a contemporary realistic that originally had magical elements that I eventually removed. My second was magical realism, the third was literary urban fantasy, and now here we are. City of Villains will be my fourth published novel and is, of course, fully driven by magic. I have a picture book coming out later this year called The Perfect Pet for YOU! with HarperCollins, as well a high concept speculative in the fall called Remember Me with Wednesday Books. I’m fortunate enough to have four more in the works over the next couple of years. Hopefully I’m just getting started.
What can readers expect from City of Villains?
To see favorite Disney characters as teenagers in a gritty urban environment, to feel some elements of a procedural story, a mystery, lots of magic, and a heroine with a lot of courage. I’m very proud of the world of the Scar and Monarch and the society I’ve created, and I think although there have been some comparisons to Gotham, readers will find it stands apart and is original and compelling.
As a fan of grittier, darker stories, I love the premise of City of Villains and how it gives Disney villains an edgier vibe. How did the idea for the story begin and what was the process like to get it published?
The process for a story like this one is a little different than for something I dreamed up entirely on my own. I knew I wanted to work for Disney, specifically with my editor Jocelyn Davies so I put my name in a hat as someone who would be interested in working on intellectual property, especially as Disney moved forward with an initiative to mine existing characters for new, updated stories. Jocelyn and I had a meeting and she presented me with this concept, the idea of a girl in an urban environment with a killer named the Mad Hatter on the loose. I immediately connected to it and wrote several chapters that night. I know sometimes they audition multiple people and I didn’t want anyone else to even have a chance. It felt like mine. Lucky for me, she responded very quickly and made an offer. After that she let me loose to create the world and the story went from there. It’s much more collaborative than when I’m writing a novel on my own with characters I’ve invented, and in some ways feels like the closest I might get to a writer’s room, where things are discussed in depth and ideas get bounced around. It’s a lot of fun and had really helped me to expand my approach to my writing life.
Were there any challenges to working with characters from the Disney canon?
For sure! Disney fans are serious, and I imagined myself being skewered for making mistakes. I did a ton of research, watched every movie featuring the characters I was working with, and really tried to pull from those and stay true to them, including updating their fashion choices while staying in line with who they’ve always been. At some point I had to trust that I had integrated enough of what has existed and go my own way. I needed the freedom to turn them into the teenagers I thought they would be and to make them larger than life while also being relatable. I accept that it will probably be polarizing.
Are there any other Disney characters that you’d like to write about in the future?
Funny you should ask. There will be a few additions in book two, which I’m just finishing up now, and for book three I’m going huge. I’m hoping I’ll be able to satisfy all the hardcore Disney fans by the end.
Did you pull inspiration from anywhere particular to get the gritty crime-solving vibe for City of Villains?
I am a huge true crime person. This is not because I love murder or anything, but because the ways in which the human psyche functions is fascinating to me. What are we all capable and what would we choose if pushed to desperation? I also really do believe in evil, and I think it’s interesting to study, and understanding really good detective work is always mind-blowing and inspiring. I listen to so many podcasts and watch every documentary and read all the books, so I’m sure they seeped in. Every once in a while, I get truly disturbed and have to take breaks, but I went pretty hard while I was writing this.
What is your writing process like? Are you a plotter or pantser? Or do you have any specific rituals that get you into the writing mindset?
I’ve done both. Now that I’m somewhat seasoned, I’m a big believer in plotting, even though nothing ever winds up the way I think it will at the beginning. It’s still an important part of the process for me to think through as much as I can, make sure the craft piece is in place, and then allow myself to be carried by my imagination. Too many times I’ve found myself cornered by lack of forethought and I don’t want to waste my time if I don’t have to. That said, my second drafts are almost always complete rewrites. There are too many moving parts to anticipate every discovery and the deepening that happens along the way. As far as process, I work full time (actually I have four jobs), so on weekdays I start writing at 5:30 a.m. and weekends around 10:00 a.m. I try to get in twenty hours of really focused time per week at a minimum. As far as rituals, I sometimes feel like my whole life is a writing ritual. I once had a bestselling author friend tell me he felt like he was managing an ecosystem. Exercise, journaling, nutrition, walks, hydration, reading, taking breaks, helping other writers, listening to music, talking to people on social media, hanging out with my kids…all of those things contribute to an overall sense of insular creativity when I finally do sit down to write and if all those things aren’t in balance I feel stifled. It takes a lot of ingredients to bake a book cake. Or something like that.
What is a piece of writing or life advice that has always stuck with you?
My agent lives by, “The world owes you nothing and you owe it your best work.” I always try to come from that place when I write. Maybe that’s why City of Villains is dedicated to her.
Can you recommend any books you’ve recently read to our readers?
I recently read all of Holly Black’s The Folk of the Air series and loved it. Also Fable blew my mind, and Lore was great. I’ve been loving reading books with really strong female characters and rich adventure. Fable was so good it was annoying.
Lastly, can you tell us anything about what you are working on next?
I’m currently working on City of Villains 2, and as soon as I’m done with that I’ll be revising a contemporary realistic novel called Practice Girl, about a girl who discovers she’s being used by a boy she thinks she’s in love with so he can practice having sex. That will be out with Viking next year. I realize I do a lot of bouncing around in terms of genre, but it keeps it all fresh and interesting that way and allows me to use different parts of my creative brain. I guess I’ll keep doing that until I have to stop.
Will you be picking up City of Villains? Tell us in the comments below!
